Republic of the Philippines
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
The National Engineering University
Alangilan Campus
Golden Country Homes, Alangilan Batangas City, Batangas, Philippines 4200
Tel Nos.: (+63 43) 425-0139 local 2121 / 2221
E-mail Address:[Link]@[Link] | Website Address: [Link]
CHAPTER 4 - EFFECTS OF NONLINEARITIES UPON TIME RESPONSE
PRE-LABORATORY SIMULATION (MATLAB OFFLINE)
Procedures:
1. Open the script in MATLAB and review the initial DC Motor parameters defined for
inertia (p.J), friction (p.b), and the motor torque constant ([Link]).
2. Navigate to Part 1 to implement the dead zone non-linearity mathematically.
3. Inside the student_deadzone function, write the equation u_dz = sign(u_cmd) .* max(0,
abs(u_cmd) - deadband); to calculate the effective voltage applied to the motor after
overcoming the deadband limit.
4. Run the script to execute your code and launch the "DC Motor Control: Dead Zone
Non-Linearity" dashboard.
5. Use the sliders in the "Non-Linearity & Control Parameters" panel to dynamically adjust
the Controller Gain (Kp) and the Dead Zone Band (V).
6. Observe the real-time effects of your parameter tuning across the "Position Tracking"
plot, the "Control Effort" plot, and the physical 3D and 2D motor animations.
Guide Questions:
1. Based on the "Time Domain: Position Tracking" plot, how does increasing the Dead
Zone Band affect the real motor's steady-state error (its ability to settle exactly on the
target line) compared to the ideal motor?
2. Observing the "Time Domain: Control Effort (Voltage)" plot, what happens to the
effective Real Voltage curve when the commanded Ideal Voltage falls inside the shaded
red dead zone limits?
Republic of the Philippines
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
The National Engineering University
Alangilan Campus
Golden Country Homes, Alangilan Batangas City, Batangas, Philippines 4200
Tel Nos.: (+63 43) 425-0139 local 2121 / 2221
E-mail Address:[Link]@[Link] | Website Address: [Link]
LABORATORY SIMULATION (MATLAB ONLINE)
Procedures:
1. Open the script within your MATLAB Online workspace.
2. Review STEP 1 and STEP 2 to observe how an ideal sine wave with an amplitude of 15V
is generated, and how mathematical saturation is enforced. Notice the nested use of the
min() and max() functions to strictly clip the requested voltage at ±10V.
3. Navigate to STEP 3 to examine the use of the lsim() command. Note that because we are
feeding the system a custom, continuously changing time-series array (u_ideal and u_sat)
rather than a standard instantaneous unit step, lsim() must be used instead of step().
4. Check STEP 4 to understand the subplot(rows, columns, position) syntax used here
(subplot(2, 1, 1) and subplot(2, 1, 2)). This stacks the input signal graph directly above
the output response graph for a direct vertical time-domain comparison.
5. Run the script and observe the stacked plots. Modify the voltage_limit variable in STEP 2
(e.g., lower it from 10 to 5), then re-run to physically see how stricter actuator constraints
further degrade the motor's ability to track the ideal linear response.
Guide Questions:
1. Looking at the nested bounding functions in STEP 2 (max(min(u_ideal, voltage_limit),
-voltage_limit)), what exact mathematical output array would MATLAB generate if you
accidentally swapped the positive and negative limits, writing max(min(u_ideal, -10), 10)
instead?
2. In STEP 3, the lsim(G_motor, u_ideal, t) command requires three distinct arguments. If
you wanted to simulate the exact same DC motor's response to a custom square wave
instead of a sine wave, which specific variable out of those three arguments would you
need to completely replace?